Maki no Kata

Maki no Kata was Hōjō Tokimasa’s later wife, married to him before 1182. Her life dates are unknown. She belonged to the household of Maki Munechika, associated with an estate in Suruga, in present-day Shizuoka; sources differ over whether she was his daughter or sister. One of her daughters married Hiraga Tomomasa, a warrior with a position in Kyoto. That marriage gave Maki interests beyond her husband’s existing children, Masako and Yoshitoki. [S01, S02]

A quarrel involving Tomomasa in 1204 helped bring accusations against Hatakeyama Shigeyasu and his father, Shigetada. Tokimasa’s forces destroyed them in 1205. Later that year, Tokimasa and Maki were implicated in an attempt to replace Shogun Sanetomo with Tomomasa. Masako and Yoshitoki secured Sanetomo at Yoshitoki’s residence, breaking the attempt. The challenge to Tokimasa’s household had come from his own children, who could secure the person of the shogun. [S01, S03]

Tokimasa lost office and retired to Izu, and Tomomasa was killed in Kyoto. Maki is said to have accompanied her husband, but she later appears in Kyoto as a Buddhist nun known as Kantō Zenni. She arranged a thirteenth-year memorial observance for Tokimasa. Her memorial work belongs to a life that continued beyond political defeat, although the details of her remaining years are thin. [S01, S03]